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Finance committee welcomes axing of Tom Moyane by Ramaphosa

The president was forced to act in view of what had occurred at Sars over the past four years, and Moyane’s failure to present his side of the story

02 November 2018 - 12:49
Linda Ensor

Yunus Carrim. Picture: GCIS

Parliament’s finance committee has welcomed President Cyril Ramaphosa’s decision to axe suspended commissioner of the South African Revenue Service (Sars), Tom Moyane.

Committee chair Yunus Carrim said at a meeting on Friday that Ramaphosa had no choice but to fire Moyane, given the final recommendation of the Sars commission of inquiry’s head, retired judge Robert Nugent, that he do so.

Carrim said Ramaphosa was forced to act in view of what had emerged during the inquiry about what had occurred at Sars over the past four years, and Moyane’s failure to present his side of the story to the commission.

The finance committee held several engagements with Moyane on the way he dealt with the former senior executive Jonas Makwakwa, who is alleged to have engaged in suspicious financial transactions of more than R1m, which were identified by the Financial Intelligence Centre (FIC).

Carrim said there was something “fundamentally wrong” in the way Sars dealt with the Makwakwa matter.

Ramaphosa said Moyane’s refusal to contribute to the work of the Nugent inquiry had counted against the former tax boss in arriving at his decision.

“Of further, and in many ways, greater concern is your refusal to meaningfully participate in the Sars commission in order to assist with identifying the root causes of the [systemic] failures at Sars,” Ramaphosa said in a statement from the presidency on Thursday.

He added that the interim report made it clear that the best course of action would be the termination of Moyane’s services. Acting Sars commissioner Mark Kingon will remain in the role until the president fills the post.